July 5th, 2052: Thirsty Today It’s hot today. Really hot. Sweat-escaping-the-heat-back-into-your-pores hot; but strangely enough, it doesn’t bother me as much as usual. I hate the heat. Makes me sick. Usually, I stay inside as much as I can. The air conditioning is nice, but with all the reports of the ozone and environment and global warming and things like that, the landlord limits our energy usage to just a select number of hours a day. Ten in the morning to six in the evening is not enough time for it to run. Prick. Anyways, I woke up this morning from a freaky dream, which is why I’m up now, this early. That’s the other thing, I don’t wake up early. Ever. I’ve lost jobs and friends because of it, as stupid as that seems. But this morning, I woke up at six. Had a dream I had a garden, which was nice. The garden was covered in this really dark red clay and the plants in it were getting all dried up because of it, which was a pain. Then when I went to water them, they all died off right in front of me, which was unsettling. Turned slimy and black and seeped into the clay. Just seemed really creepy, so I got up and decided to get some air, if that’s what you can call it. More of a thick, heavy, hazy sort of breathable substance. I’m not a crazy eco-fiend girl like a few neighbors I have, but I did like it better when the air quality was, you know, yellow.
I live in a five-floor apartment near a relatively big city, so we get the spill-over smog that they don’t breathe up all by themselves. We used to be a pretty on-our-own town, but within the past ten years, cities have found that it’s way simpler to build around tiny towns, choking out our economy with their supermalls and giant fitness centers. Union Grove was never the same after the City moved in around us. Given, the Grove couldn’t have possibly been dragged down much more than it had already done on its own, but there were certain aspects that seemed…I don’t know, small-town-like. Sidewalks and trees, the normal stuff you’d see in a drive-through village. Now it’s all concrete and garbage cans. Typical slum.
I heard from a neighbor the other day that there’s something going around; like a flu-bug or something. She made it seem like it was really bad…eyes falling out, internal bleeding, stuff like that. I think she’s just overreacting because she’s more afraid of the world than she lets on. As much as she preaches green living, I doubt she believes what in she’s saying. I saw her leave for the complex today with one of those medical masks on her face and over sized latex gloves hanging on her bony hands. She calls it being careful. I call it hypochondria.
I watched the news today. The newscasters seemed tired as they read monotonously from the teleprompter. The typical reports of deaths and accidents and occasional charity event spill out of the speakers behind the TV and bounced off the vacant walls of my living space. One thing did catch my attention though. A reference back to the outbreak of H1N1 that occurred almost 50 years ago flew out of the balding man’s mouth with a good amount of excitement. Apparently, there’s been a reported case of it somewhere in northern Wisconsin. Strange, I thought they found a fix for that.
I left the TV on for background noise as I got up to do the dishes. I hate the smell of the water here.
It’s hot today. Really hot. Sweat-escaping-the-heat-back-into-your-pores hot; but strangely enough, it doesn’t bother me as much as usual. I hate the heat. Makes me sick. Usually, I stay inside as much as I can. The air conditioning is nice, but with all the reports of the ozone and environment and global warming and things like that, the landlord limits our energy usage to just a select number of hours a day. Ten in the morning to six in the evening is not enough time for it to run. Prick. Anyways, I woke up this morning from a freaky dream, which is why I’m up now, this early. That’s the other thing, I don’t wake up early. Ever. I’ve lost jobs and friends because of it, as stupid as that seems. But this morning, I woke up at six. Had a dream I had a garden, which was nice. The garden was covered in this really dark red clay and the plants in it were getting all dried up because of it, which was a pain. Then when I went to water them, they all died off right in front of me, which was unsettling. Turned slimy and black and seeped into the clay. Just seemed really creepy, so I got up and decided to get some air, if that’s what you can call it. More of a thick, heavy, hazy sort of breathable substance. I’m not a crazy eco-fiend girl like a few neighbors I have, but I did like it better when the air quality was, you know, yellow.
I live in a five-floor apartment near a relatively big city, so we get the spill-over smog that they don’t breathe up all by themselves. We used to be a pretty on-our-own town, but within the past ten years, cities have found that it’s way simpler to build around tiny towns, choking out our economy with their supermalls and giant fitness centers. Union Grove was never the same after the City moved in around us. Given, the Grove couldn’t have possibly been dragged down much more than it had already done on its own, but there were certain aspects that seemed…I don’t know, small-town-like. Sidewalks and trees, the normal stuff you’d see in a drive-through village. Now it’s all concrete and garbage cans. Typical slum.
I heard from a neighbor the other day that there’s something going around; like a flu-bug or something. She made it seem like it was really bad…eyes falling out, internal bleeding, stuff like that. I think she’s just overreacting because she’s more afraid of the world than she lets on. As much as she preaches green living, I doubt she believes what in she’s saying. I saw her leave for the complex today with one of those medical masks on her face and over sized latex gloves hanging on her bony hands. She calls it being careful. I call it hypochondria.
I watched the news today. The newscasters seemed tired as they read monotonously from the teleprompter. The typical reports of deaths and accidents and occasional charity event spill out of the speakers behind the TV and bounced off the vacant walls of my living space. One thing did catch my attention though. A reference back to the outbreak of H1N1 that occurred almost 50 years ago flew out of the balding man’s mouth with a good amount of excitement. Apparently, there’s been a reported case of it somewhere in northern Wisconsin. Strange, I thought they found a fix for that.
I left the TV on for background noise as I got up to do the dishes. I hate the smell of the water here.